Hi,

when you look at the table you are seeing the Format, in this case DD/MM/YYYY.
when you move into the cell you are seeing the way Excel is actually storing
the data which is related to the operting system setting. If you want to get
them both in sync either - 1. change window regional date settings or 2.
change the cell format to MM/DD/YYYY.

If this helps, please click the Yes button

Cheers,
Shane Devenshire

"Marie" wrote:

Thanks, I'll try that, but it seems to me an excel problem as the merge field
itself shows as US date format when the excel table is formatted OZ. That
is, when I look at the Excel table it is 26/12/2008 and when I edit the merge
table it is 12/26/2008. I just can't work it out.

"macropod" wrote:

Hi Marie,

To get the date format you want, you can add a formatting picture switch in Word. To do this:
.. select the mergefield;
.. press Shift-F9 to expose the field coding. It should look something like {MERGEFIELD MyDate} where 'MyDate' is your mergefield's
name;
.. delete anything appearing after the mergefield's name and add '\@ "d MMMM yyyy"' to the field, as in {MERGEFIELD MyDate \@ "d MMMM
yyyy"}. With this switch your date will come out as '2 August 2008'. Other possible date formatting switches include:
. \@ "dddd, d MMMM yyyy";
. \@ "ddd, d MMMM yyyy";
. \@ "d MMM yyyy";
. \@ "dd/MMM/yyyy";
. \@ "d-MM-yy";
Note: you must use uppercase 'M's for months.
.. position the cursor anywhere in this field and press F9 to update it;
.. run your mailmerge.

Not familiar with Publisher, sorry.

--
Cheers
macropod
[MVP - Microsoft Word]


"Marie" wrote in message ...
When I try to merge an excel table to word or Publisher, the date format
changes to US format. So I select the data source and open it to edit, the
date format changes?? Any suggestion? Thanks